Thursday, January 6, 2011

Knife's Edge

Knife’s Edge by Malorie Blackman, a novel hypothesizing a world in which people with black skin (called Crosses) are superior than those with white skin (Naughts), was equally as exciting as its prequel, Naughts and Crosses. Although both books switched narrators with every chapter, the reader learned the aftermath of the first book from a different perspective. The first book was narrated by Callum, a naught and by his friend and love, Sephy, a cross. The book resulted in the execution of Callum, obviously eliminating him from the list of narrators in the sequel. Having the more one sided view of similar scenarios changed the readers’ minds as they read the sequel.
The only aspect of Knife’s Edge that I disliked was the very ending. After Sephy holds her baby, Rose, a bit too tight, she begins to choke. As Rose’s grandmother comes to perform CPR, the book ends with the grandmother shouting “please breathe, Rose”, leaving Rose’s vitality ambiguous. I understand the rationale behind leaving the reader with something to ponder, but I found this ending to be more of an annoyance than an excitement.

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